Dante's Fleece: Instilling the Divine, Transfiguring the Human in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars

但丁的羊毛：《神曲》的神性灌輸與人性轉化

Brian K. Reynolds

《Tamkang Review》 50卷2期 (2020/06) Pp. 31-53

https://doi.org/10.6184/TKR.202006_50(2).0002

摘要

At the outset of Paradiso 25, Dante imagines himself returning triumphant as poeta (8) ＂with altered fleece, with altered voice＂ (7) to his beloved Florence after long exile, so as to be crowned with the poet's laurel at the font of his baptism. At first glance, this seems a strangely presumptuous and poignantly personal ambition for one who has supposedly risen above all such earthly concerns. But a closer reading will suggest otherwise. Teetering between hubris and humility as he strives to give voice to the unbounded reaches of his vision, Dante may now dare to count himself among the poets of old; indeed, he has surpassed them, for his is a poetry, ＂to which both Earth and Heaven have set their hands＂ (1-2). The fleece that Dante seeks to bear back to the world is far greater than the golden treasure sought by Jason (Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.720-7.158). Where Jason's magnanimous journey has as its end mere earthly glory and leaves in its wake a trail of destruction, Dante's purpose in ploughing a furrow through the ocean of Heaven, drawing us in his wake (Par. 2.18) is to transhumanise us (Par. 1.70), to open us up to the infinite possibilities of the divine within us. His ＂altered fleece＂ is the dew-impregnated fleece of Gideon (Vulgate Bible, Judg. 6.36-40), traditionally interpreted as a type of the Incarnation, because, like the Virgin Mary, the poet wants to ＂magnify the Lord＂ (Luke 1.46). His poem, far from being some sort of personal vindication, bears a message of conversion for the world that lives so badly (Purg. 32.103) that it might rediscover the God who ＂open[ed] the road that runs from Heaven to earth＂ (Par. 23.37).

關鍵字

Dante ； Commedia ； Virgin Mary ； incarnation ； poetics ； divinization

並列摘要

在〈天堂篇〉第25章的開頭，但丁想像自己是以一位詩人的身份勝利返鄉，「披著不同的羊毛，帶著不同的聲音」，在長久的流放之後，回到他摯愛的佛羅倫斯，為的是在他領洗的聖洗池旁，戴上詩人的桂冠。乍看之下，這似乎是一個奇怪、放肆且極度個人化的野心，特別是對一個應該已經超脫此番世俗利害的人來說。但細讀之後，會有不同的見解。在驕傲與謙遜之間擺盪，他努力表達他無所不及的視界，如今但丁可能敢將自己視為古代詩人之列，甚至超越他們，因為他的詩作「由天與地一起命筆」。但丁企圖帶回給這個世界的羊毛，遠比傑森（《變形記》6.720-7.158）追尋的黃金寶藏更為珍貴。傑森的高尚旅程之目的在於塵世的榮耀，並且留下毀滅的痕跡；但丁在天堂海洋中破浪、引領我們跟隨其後（〈天堂篇〉2.18）之目的，在於轉換我們的人性（〈天堂篇〉1.70），以開啟我們內在神性的無限可能。「另一種羊毛」於他而言是蘸滿露水的「基德紅的羊毛」（民長記6.36-40），傳統上被詮釋為道成肉身的象徵，因為如同瑪利亞，詩人創作《神曲》的目的在於「頌揚上主」（路加福音1.46）而非個人的辯護。透過他的詩作，這個作孽的凡塵（〈煉獄篇〉32.103）能夠重新發現「開啟從天堂到人間道路」（〈天堂篇〉23.37）的天主。

並列關鍵字

但丁 ； 《神曲》 ； 聖母瑪利亞 ； 道成肉身 ； 詩學 ； 占卜

參考文獻

Adam of Perseigne. Epistolae. Migne, Patrologiae Latina, vol. 211, col. 583B-694C.

Amato, Angelo, et al., editors. Testi Mariani del Secondo Millennio. Citta Nuova, 1996-2008. 8 vols.

Ambrose of Milan. De Institutione Virginis. Migne, Patrologiae Latina, vol. 16, col. 249A-275B.

Anselm of Lucca. “Cinq textes de priere composes par Anselme de Lucques pour la comtesse Mathilde.” Revue d@@$$ascetique et de mystique, vol. 19, 1938, pp. 23-72.

Anthony of Padua. Sermons for Sundays and Festivals III: From the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost to the Third Sunday after Epiphany and Marian Sermons. Translated by Stephen Spilsbury, Edizioni Messagero Padova, 2009.